Page 100 of A Court Bright and Broken

“You’re almost there,” I said, a bit breathless from the thought.

He stopped just before the backs of his legs connected with the tub wall then reached behind him, offering me one of the towels.

“For your hair,” he said. “When you’ve got that wrapped up, I’ll hand you the other one.”

I plucked the cloth from his hand and leaned my head back on the edge of the tub behind me, wrapping my wet hair in the soft towel. It was more luxurious than the softest blanket I’d ever felt.

“Okay, I’m ready for the other one,” I said.

But Stellon didn’t immediately give me the towel.

“Do you think you can stand?” he asked. “Or do you need me to, you know, reach in and pick you up? With my eyes closed, of course.”

“I can do it,” I blurted before he even finished what he was saying.

His eyes might be closed but he’dfeel… everything.

Heat darted to my breasts and lower abdomen, making me squirm. Struggling again to stand on my one good foot, I asked Stellon for the towel, and he handed it to me. Behind his back, I managed to wrap it around my body.

It was so large it covered me from chest to mid-thigh. Which was a good thing since I had no choice but to accept his help getting out of the bathtub.

“Okay, I’m decent,” I said through a throat that suddenly seemed to contain a boulder.

He turned, and his eyelids flared. But he didn’t say anything untoward. He just swallowed hard, making the protrusion in the front of his own throat lower and rise again.

Then he gave a tight nod and bent his knees, sliding one arm around my back and the other beneath the backs of my knees.

In one quick motion, I was out of the tub and pressed against his chest and upper abdomen, my bare shoulder making contact with his skin. Once again, he felt incredibly warm.

Or maybe I was overheated from the bath—and my inappropriate thoughts.

In this position, the towel rode up my thighs, now covering only the tops of them. I hurriedly grabbed the bottom edge and tugged, but that only served to pull down the top edge, revealing more than a hint of my cleavage.

With my other hand, I covered my chest.

Stellon chuckled. “Don’t worry. Ball gowns reveal more than your towel—at least on top.”

My fist that held the towel’s lower edge tightened until my knuckles were white.

“Besides, I’m not looking,” he said.

Right. “How would you know what I’m revealing if you didn’t look?

“Correction—I’m not lookingnow.Sofa or bed?” he asked as he carried me from the bathroom toward the sitting and sleeping quarters.

“Bed,” I said.

I planned to close the bed curtains and stay there, wrapped in the towel as I slept. By morning, my shift would be dry.

“I changed the sheets while you were bathing,” Stellon said. “It was my first time. I think I did pretty well with it, if I do say so myself.”

This was so awful. Not only had I lost all modesty, all my pride was gone, too.

I was being waited on hand and foot by the Crown Prince of Avrandar and the Sixlands, who was being required to serve as a lady’s maidanda chambermaid.

What must he be thinking of it all?

When he’d deposited me on the edge of the bed, I looked up at Stellon. He didn’t seem put out in the least.

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